


Good To Be Back

by AjSpammin



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Lance (Voltron), Altean bodyguard Lance, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Black paladin can pilot any lion, Blue Paladin Altean Lance, Close Allura and Lance, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Flashbacks, Gen, I'm Bad At Tagging, Just an au I came up with, Keith and Shiro are Adoptive Siblings, Langst, Protective Lance (Voltron), platonic love everywhere
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-11-06 04:34:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11028732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AjSpammin/pseuds/AjSpammin
Summary: Having everything, everyone you knew and loved gone when you are freed is not what Lance, nor his Princess and dear friend thought they would come back to.Now, not only do they have to cope with the fact that they're the only ones left of their people, they also have to look after four humans that are apparently the new paladins.How fun.





	1. Chapter 1

Everything was cold, it was so damn cold and he hated it, he hated the cold. The last thing the young bodyguard remembered was the Galra attacking Altea and then the rest was kind of a blur.

A gasp of air passed the Altean's lips when he was freed from his containment, blue orbs opening wide to see four...beings standing before him, one of them being near a very familiar figure.

The princess.

"Your highness!" His voice was deeper and slightly rough from lack of use. The princess turned towards the man and a gasp passed her lips.

"Lance!" She was quick to approach and wrap her arms around her guard, holding his larger form close. Lance tensed at first, not quite used to the contact he learned his princess often showed, before slowly wrapping his arms around her. He heard a voice murmur something and his gaze snapped up, blue orbs narrowing as he quickly moved her behind him.

"Who are you?" He growled out, hand moving to the side. Gasps came from the beings in front of him as well as the Princess when a blue bayard formed in his hand, quickly morphing into a gun.

"Lance, no! They freed us!" He looked back at the Princess and parted his lips to speak when another voice joined the fray.

"Enemy combatants!" The older Altean's voice met Lance's ears and he spun around to see Coran, the king's advisor, standing in a defensive position. His eyes landed on Lance and the Princess and they widened. "Allura! Lance!" It didn't take long for him to be wrapped up in both younger alteans' holds, words leaving all three of them. 

When a voice cleared behind them, Lance spun around, once again tightening his hold on his bayard and pointing it towards the humans. He heard Allura's sigh, but didn't bother lowering his weapon. His primary objective was to protect the princess. Allura moved so she was standing beside her guard, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"As you know, I am Allura, Princess of Altea. This is my guard, whom is also the Blue Paladin, the pilot of the lion you arrived here in." She felt Lance tense under her touch and quickly shut her mouth. Just one look at him and she could see the anger shining in those bright blue orbs. 

"One of you piloted my Blue?" His voice slowly raised in volume as he glared at the men before him. The one in front quickly held his hands up in a reaction he was used to seeing when people surrendered to him.

"I did." He stated, the tension in his body obvious when Lance's weapon was pointed towards him. The paladin went to speak when a low purr rumbled in the back of his mind. He was quick to lower his weapon ever so slightly, standing straight with a frown.

"But Blue..." He started, brows furrow in with aggravation. His eyes widened at whatever the lion had said to him and he stared at the man in front before lowering his bayard. His expression was blank as he stared at him before he sighed heavily. The man was obviously startled when Lance had approached and then bowed before him, looking up at him from behind long, brown bangs.

“I am Lance, the Blue Paladin and guard of Princess Allura.” He didn’t really think it through as he took the man’s flesh hand into his own, ignoring the confused sound the man made. He let his eyes slip shut as he pressed his cool lips against his warmer hand in a gentle kiss before releasing it, standing at his full height once more. He was confused by the flustered look on the human’s face and he frowned, looking at Allura slightly. “Allura, I think I broke it.” The princess giggled at his statement and moved to stand beside him. 

"That's most likely only an Altean custom, Lance." She stated, amusement in her voice. His mouth formed a small 'o' shape and he looked towards the larger man. 

"I do apologize." He states, bowing his head slightly. The man cleared his throat and waved his hand slightly. 

"It's fine. My name is Shiro. This is Keith,-" He motioned towards the small man whom seemed annoyed by all of this. "Hunk,-" The larger man whom offered Lance a smile. He couldn't help but smile back slightly, which seemed to highly please the human. "and Pidge." He motioned towards the smallest of the group, whom was staring up at Lance through a large pair of glasses. He stared down at them for a moment before smiling, an odd feeling of familiarity flooding him. They reminded him of his younger sister.

His smile was gone fairly quickly and he turned to Allura, panic in his eyes. 

"How long have we been asleep?" He questioned, blue eyes wide. The princess made a sound and quickly went back to the computer, typing away on it. One of the humans had made a quiet comment on it, but he didn't try to figure out which one had said it.

"It can't be..." Allura's voice was quiet and hesitant, making a sinking feeling coil down in Lance's gut.

"What is it..?" Coran approached the princess with Lance at his side, both pausing beside her.

"We've been asleep for 10,000 years.." Her voice cracked slightly as she looked at her fellow Alteans. There was a heartbroken look on the young paladin's face, a hand coming up to cover his mouth. His legs began to shake beneath him and he let himself sink to his knees, his free hand on the ground to support himself. 

"No.." Lance whispered, his entire body trembling as he stared at the ground.

The young altean's chest felt tight as he looked at the Princess, whom was now being held by the royal advisor as he tried to calm her, before quickly looking back down. He could hear his heart beat in his ears, his hands were shaking, the information drilling into his brain.

They were asleep for 10,000 years.

Everyone was gone.

They were the last of their kind.

"Lance.." Allura's voice met his ears as she placed a hand on his shoulder. His gaze snapped towards her before he pretty much scrambled away from her touch and stood, taking off. He heard her yell his name, Coran's voice soon joining in.

Lance tried to pretend they weren't there, tried to ignore the voice in his brain yelling at him to go back, yelling at him for leaving the princess without her guard.

A low purr rumbled in the back of his mind and he was quick to go where his lion told him she was. He all but skidded to a stop when up ended up outside, pupils dilating at the sight. Blue sat on the ground before him, eyes lighting up and looking down at him. He slowly let himself look around, only to see nature. That's all he could see. No buildings. No homes. No people.

Lance clenched his fists, hearing his lion's concerned purr in the back of his mind.

Slowly, he approached her and placed a hand on the large, metallic paw in front of him. In moments, he was on his knees with a hand covering his mouth, tears streaming down his cheeks as he tried to hold back the sobs that were shaking his body.

**'Lance..'**

Blue's voice.

The lion lowered her head and opened her mouth to let him in, waiting patiently as he pushed his shaking form up off the ground. His movement was slow, gaze glued to the ground as he entered Blue and went to her cockpit, slowly sitting in the seat. It moved forward so he was staring down at controls.

_"Lance, I have something I would like to ask of you."_

_The Blue Paladin jumped at the sound of a voice, hand pausing. He had been cleaning Blue up after a particularly difficult fight that left her scratched and dirty. Slowly turning around, his eyes widened at the sight._

_"Your highness!" He had begun to bow when King Alfor laughed and placed a hand on his shoulder, making the brunette pause._

_"Lance, we've been fighting together for a year now, I see no reason why you should be formal with me." He smiled down at him and he slowly looked up at him, offering an almost sheepish smile. Alfor let a deep chuckle rumble from his chest as he watched the younger paladin stand at full height. "My my, you've always been so jumpy." Lance raised a hand to rub the back of his neck with a laugh._

_"Well, you know how large my family is, your- sir-" The king laughed and shook his head slightly. Lance offered a sheepish smile with a murmur of the man's given name._

_"Plus you have my dear daughter who seems to enjoy sneaking up on you." There was a small smile on the Yellow Paladin's face, head tilting slightly. Lance let out a full blown laugh, his mind going back to how the young princess seemed to enjoy scaring him, always either poking the middle of his back or grabbing his sides. In all honesty, he had grown to view her as a younger sister, which he had told the king about once when they had gone on a mission with just the two of them. He had laughed and said she once called him her big brother back when she he had first become but a guard at the castle. It warmed the teen's heart and made him smile. Nowadays, they could share 'I love you's and it was always platonic/a show of their familial bond._

_"Yeah, but I love her anyways." He states with a gentle smile, a smile that the king had returned._

_"She's actually what I came here to talk to you about." Alfor looked around slightly before looking at the young knight. "Lance...if you would be willing, I would like to ask you to be her personal guard." Lance gaped, eyes widening. Before he had even gotten to reply, the king continued. "Things have been...difficult lately and I want to be sure my daughter will be alright." There was a moment of silence before Lance smiled at the older paladin._

_"Of course, sir. I will protect her with my life."_

_"Thank you, Lance."_

Lance stared at the controls, unaware of the figure standing before Blue, sad eyes watching the lion whom had put up her force field to protect her paladin from others.

**'Lance, the Black Paladin is here.'**

Blue's voice echoed through his mind and he slowly looked up, blue eyes staring at the man whom he now knew as Shiro standing in front her. A long sigh passed his lips before he wiped his eyes and leaned back. 

"Let him in.." His voice was quiet as he dried any tears left on his face off, nodding slightly when Blue's concerned purr rumbled through his mind. "I'm sure."

He could feel her moving to lower her head to the ground, jaw dropping open to let the human in. Shiro seemed to hesitate before entering the lion, heading up to cockpit. 

"Lance?" Shiro's voice was hesitant as he stared at the silent altean, waiting for him to acknowledge him. 

"So, has Allura caught you up on everything?" Lance's voice was tired as he looked back at the man, slowly pushing himself up. Shiro cleared his throat and nodded slightly.

"She did. She asked me to come get you, actually. She needs you to go with Hunk to get the Yellow Lion." Shiro seemed to harden himself, voice and expression serious. It wavered slightly, though, at the pained look on Lance's face.

"So he really is gone, huh..?" The question was quiet, just barely loud enough for Shiro to hear. He parted his lips to speak when Lance continued. "Alright, I'm coming in." The nineteen year old moved to exit Blue, following Shiro out and running his fingers along the walls of Blue's interior.

_It's good to see you, beautiful._

**'I have missed you, Lance.'**


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was thinking and I couldn't help but think Lance is probably as tall as Shiro in this AU
> 
> meh
> 
> Also, this chapter is pretty all over the place, but whatever
> 
> About the other chapters as well: these aren't going in order just yet. Right now, it's just about how Lance and the others are adjusting to having four humans as the rest of Voltron as well as some backstory for Lance and his relations with Allura and Coran. For example, the next chapter takes place when Lance is still cautious around the others. He doesn't really trust them yet. In this chapter, he does trust them, he's close to them.  
> I know it's wack, but I'm just trying to get the hang of writing Lance, getting his personality worked out, before I write the official story-line for this AU.

It honestly had not taken long for Lance to start to get along with two of the humans that had come to their planet in his lion. Hunk and Pidge were their names and honestly, they seemed like people he would have been friends with back in his time. Pidge really reminded him of his little sister so he began to treat them like a sibling, much to their dismay. Hunk had told him they liked it deep down, though.

It seemed like Keith just didn’t like him. Then again, it seemed like Keith didn’t really like anyone except for Shiro. It was odd, at least to Lance it was, but he got used to the dirty looks he’d be given if he was too close to Shiro when Keith was around. Sometimes, just to get on his nerves, he’d sling an arm over Shiro’s shoulder and joke around with the man whom was now the black paladin. Keith absolutely hated it.

Now Shiro. He was definitely…different. It was difficult for Lance to get used to a human being the leader of Voltron; he honestly did not really like it at first. Besides, he was still fairly upset over the fact that said human had piloted _his_ lion. Still, he tried after some pestering from Allura and now he kind of enjoyed the man’s presence. He was a good listener, stubborn at times, but he would listen when Lance pointed out a flaw in a plan and tried to work with him. That's what mattered.

After the whole Sendak incident, though, everyone seemed a little on edge.

Lance was frustrated with himself for getting himself knocked out, but he would never regret it because Coran was okay in the end. That was all that mattered to him. Plus, he got a good shot at Sendak in at some point that he couldn’t really remember, but that wasn’t what mattered. (Keith seemed frustrated over something he called a ‘bonding moment’, but Lance didn’t know what he was talking about, so that was fun, seeing him get mad at him for it.)

The castle coming to life was also a pretty freaky thing and Lance did have to hand it to Keith, he saved Lance’s life so it earned him a side-hug the other did not want and a thank you.

Right now, the young Altean was watching the Black Paladin pace around the room the humans had dubbed the ‘common room’, blue eyes catching the other’s every now and then when he’d glance at him. Finally, after getting bored with watching him, Lance pushed himself up and approached the man, placing a hand on his shoulder. Shiro had jumped at first before relaxing slightly, looking at him.

“Lance, is there something wrong?” Said male just rolled his eyes at the ridiculous question and moved his hand down to the other’s wrist, giving it a gentle tug.

“You seem frustrated. Let’s go train, let you get some of that frustration out on a moving target. Me and you, one on one, hand to hand.” Lance could see the hesitance in Shiro’s eyes and he let out a soft sigh, tilting his head back for a moment before looking at him once more. “How about this, it can be a test. I’ve seen you fight in Black, but never in person. I want to test your strength.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” The older male’s (well, not really since Lance was technically 10,019 years old, but who counts the years you’ve been frozen) eyes flickered around for a moment before landing on him once more. The small smile and nod seemed to work because he sighed and nodded slightly. “Fine, fine. It’d be nice to get some training in anyways.”

“Great. Let’s go.” He grabbed his wrist once more before tugging him towards the training room.

“Wait, but Lance, our armor-“

“Don’t need it.”

“Lance-“

“Nope.”

The Blue Paladin was snickering at the huff that left the other, grinning slightly as he entered the training room with Shiro on his tail. Lance was in a defensive position once they were in their places, a small smirk finding its way onto his face as he motioned for Shiro to start. The other hesitated once more, but a playful taunt got a smile and less hesitance from the older male. In moments, the two were going at it, dodging and throwing punches. The punches weren’t too hard when they landed, but they were hard enough that they might have some bruises later.

Lance ducked under the swing, taking advantage of the time he was constantly stretching and trying out different maneuvers that made him a surprisingly flexible man. His leg swung out at Shiro’s bringing the man down with a startled grunt. The Blue Paladin snickered and stood back up, offering the other a hand. Shiro stared at it before taking it with his prosthetic one, letting himself be pulled back up.

“Few more doboshes and then we can quit for the day.” Lance breathed out, soft pants passing his lips. Shiro just nodded slightly and wiped sweat from his forehead with his arm, going into position once more. As they trained, Lance swung his leg in a kick when Shiro’s prosthetic arm blocked it. The sound of metal colliding sounded throughout the room, making the two pause. Shiro’s arm and Lance’s leg were still pressed together and the Altean quickly lost balance, letting himself drop to the ground. Shocked gray orbs were staring down at him and he cleared his throat, moving a hand to rub his leg nervously once he brought his knees up to his chest. “Session over.” He murmured, not meeting the Black Paladin’s eyes.

“Lance…is your leg-” Shiro got cut off by the doors to the training room opening. Keith stood there, staring at the two with a curious glint in his eyes. Shiro slowly looked up from the curled up Lance, gray orbs meeting violet. There was a tense silence in the room and in moments, Lance was up and bolting. “Lance!” Shiro’s voice was loud in his ears as he pushed past Keith and ran to the room he called his own. He ignored the look the younger male gave him, a look that almost seemed concerned, and locked himself away.

 

“Lance, it’s been vargas, please come out…one of them was going to find out sooner or later!” Allura’s voice sounded through the door, though Lance ignored it. He had taken his pants off so he was just in is briefs, his blanket covering everything but his left leg. His eyes were glued to it, eyes following the sleek metal that led almost all the way up to his hip. It was scratched up from a long time of fighting and use. He was going to have to clean it up. He wouldn’t have had this in the first place if he had just paid attention to his surroundings and- His fingers brushed across the cold prosthetic and he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to push the memory out of his mind.

_Of course something had to go wrong during a mission they had thought was simple. It was supposed to be an in and out thing, get the queen, get out, but that’s not how it went._

_Lance and the Red Paladin had been the distraction, having to keep the guards on them until they knew Alfor and the Green Paladin had the queen. It seemed to have been going well until there was an explosion near the small village they were there for. Lance had gotten permission to leave the guards to the Red Paladin and took off to the village, telling the others over the comm what he was doing. Alfor had said not to do it, but he did anyways, he wasn’t going to let that town get destroyed when he could do something about it. In moments, he was there, and there was chaos all around. They had attacked the village while the paladins were away and now it was Lance versus a lot more of them._

_He had been doing well at first; they didn’t call him a sharpshooter for nothing._

_Still, nothing does go as planned._

_He hadn’t been expecting someone to attack the building he was shooting from from behind. In moments, the building was crumbling and he was beneath it. His leg had been crushed and Alfor had told him the scream he heard the young paladin let out was blood curdling._

_After that, things seemed to go back to as planned. The other paladins got to the town with the queen and took out the rest of the aliens that had taken her before going to help Lance._

_There was blood everywhere, the bright liquid shining in the daylight. His chest was heaving, hands tangled in his hair as he tried to distract himself from the pain._

_He hated the fact that they had to replace his leg with a prosthetic if he ever wanted to walk again. Despite how often the princess or king would try to reassure him that everything would be okay, he knew they were wrong._

_Nothing was ever the same after that. He was treated differently, they treated him like he was a fragile doll that could shatter at the smallest touch. They tried to keep him off of missions, even when he had healed enough to go on them. He could always feel the pitying gaze of his friends when he went past, could still hear the sob his mother had let out when she found out._

Lance wasn’t even aware they had gotten his door open until he felt a dip on his bed. He looked up at the princess and Coran, silently staring at them for a moment before he let his hard exterior crumble. He let himself be pulled into a hug as tears streamed down his face, sobs shaking his body. He could hear a soft, reassuring purr in the back of his mind, but it didn’t really help that much.

Once he had been calmed down, he put a pair of pants on once more as well as the Blue Lion slippers laying on the floor near his bed. The Alteans took their time as they went to the kitchen where the humans sat, space goo in front of them. They hadn't touched it yet, having been waiting for the others. The tension in the air was thick and Lance's eyes flickered between them all before landing on Shiro. Blue orbs met gray and they held eye contact before Lance motioned with his head for Shiro to follow him. The leader quickly stood, nodding slightly and followed Lance down the hallway to the common room, a good bit away from the others so they couldn't hear them talking.

"Lance?" Shiro's voice was cautious as he waited for the Blue Paladin to say something. A heavy sigh fell passed his lips and he turned so he was facing Shiro. He brought his left leg up so his ankle was resting against the back of one of the couches and moved to roll his pant leg up. "Lance, you don't-"

"Shut up." Lance saw the man flinch back from the corner of his eyes and ignored the brief guilt that pooled in his gut in favor of paying attention to what he was doing. He stopped once he had rolled his pant leg enough that it was just above where the prosthetic met his flesh, a sliver of skin visible between the fabric of his pants and the metal. The Black Paladin was silent as Lance told him what had happened. There was a distant look in the Altean's eyes, gaze trained on the leg as he spoke. He hadn't realized how close Shiro had gotten until he was done talking and he felt a hand on his shoulder. Lance had jumped slightly and almost lost balance when he felt one of Shiro's arms go around him and hold him upright, a hand resting on his side. He was tense, eyes slowly going to the other. In moments, Lance was lowering his leg and moving away so there was distance between the two of them once more, gaze glued downwards. He heard the other sigh, but it didn't sound like he was coming closer.

"Lance...You didn't have to tell me if you weren't ready, but I appreciate you being honest with me. I know it can be hard talking about something like that." Shiro's voice was soft and oddly enough, it calmed Lance. The younger let out a soft sigh before nodding slightly, looking at him and finally meeting his eyes once more.

"Let's go back to dinner." His smile was small, hesitant, but when Shiro returned it with a warm smile of his own, Lance knew he did the right thing.

Lance took his time with telling the others, Allura and Coran's support being what kept him motivated.

He had been planning on telling Hunk next, the Yellow Paladin had quickly become a good friend and he knew he would take it well. In the end, however, he ended up telling Keith. The shorter male was determined to figure out what had happened in the training room and then during dinner the quintent the Altean had stolen Shiro. He had tried to change the subject, but Keith was stubborn so he ended up telling him about it. The Red Paladin had been quiet for a long moment before murmuring an apology for pushing him to tell him. Lance had just sighed before offering a tired smile, telling him everything was fine.

Hunk and Pidge had similar reactions when he had told them. Hunk had wanted to see how it was put together, how it worked, though he was cautious about asking Lance about it. The Altean found it amusing how his friend seemed nervous to ask if he could examine it. Pidge had wanted to examine the coding, see what got it working, how it connected to the rest of his body. They were a little more blunt about it than Hunk was, but it didn't bother Lance. It was nice to see they weren't acting differently around him because of it.

"Lance?" Coran's voice made the Blue Paladin jump slightly and he looked up from the map he was examining. He had become curious about earth when he heard Hunk and Pidge telling him about it so he used the galaxy map to look for the planet. He had been quite disappointed when he wasn't able to see the planet itself due to just how far away they were, but the galaxy it was in was quite pretty.

"Coran! Hey, is there something you need?" He smiles at his friend, watching as he approached and stood beside him, looking at the beautiful galaxy. There was a moment of silence before he looked at him slightly, lips curling downwards slightly in a small frown.

"Everyone else has already went to bed, Lance. Why don't you?" The question was one he was growing used to hearing and it pulled a slow sigh from him.

"I'm not tired." There was a pause before he shot the older Altean a small, playful smile. "What about you? Why aren't you sleeping, you old geezer?" He laughs at the affronted squawk that left the man, an offended look on his face. The teen just continued to laugh as Coran tried to say he wasn't old, a hand coming up to cover his mouth to hide his grin. It was moments like this that reminded him of times that have long passed, times that were peaceful, before Zarkon had- He quickly pushed the thought away in favor of looking at the king's adviser, a soft smile finding its way onto his face at the look on the other's face. His expression had softened into a gently smile and Lance had jumped slightly when Coran had raised a hand to place it on his shoulder.

"I'm here if you need anything, alright, Lance?" His voice was gentle and it made the younger Altean smile, relaxing under his touch.

"Thanks, Coran." He laughed when the ginger raised his hand and ruffled the Blue Paladin's hair, ducking away from the touch slightly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the support on the first chapter!
> 
> I'm often on tumblr, so if any of you have a question for me about one of the chapters, my tumblr is the same as my username on here!


End file.
